THE FLOWER BOATS OF CHINA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2470, 7 April 1909, Page 2

THE FLOWER BOATS OF CHINA.

A GLANCE BEHIND THE CURV. TAIN, i - . (By S. Kingsbury in the “Dominion.”) “Fire I Death amidst the flower boats on the Pearl River!” A recent cablegram to this effect is picturesque and suggestive in itself, but to those who know their Canton, every line is a summary of an inferno beyond description. y i'i fi ■; ; 1-j.S. J : i •

The flower boats of China are one of those color patches of the antique which have existed for centuries, and through the centuries have added on to themselves mystery and a certain fascination. Their shadows and reflections, appear on the pages of a thousand boohs on China, yet no Western artist or writer can wholly embody the reality. .It is easy to convey the grotesque,, to transfer the picturesque, but there is still something mocking and elusive; and again there is indefinable custom with roots . immovable in dead yeans, roots which may rot and mingle with decay yet never can be quite extracted, nor their meanings understood. : ■GENESIS OF THE FLOWER BOAT. In forgotten time—when the Pearl* . River, was less sluggish, less grey with mud and human-sewerage,'when Canton was first establishing itself by inevitable laws as the commerce valve of -South China, and an old census would have totalled in thousands rather than in. millions—lies the genesis of the Clapton. flowed h05t.;.... We are baffled to-day to find its pattern, the Quaint original upon which it. was modelled, i'ubi wp are dense with ignorance in the search frankly admit I have no ear for music, town or city. A little we may learn’ from deduction, however. The sea and the river already probably held the first types of junks and sampans, and then, as now, men and women passed their days from sunrise to sunset upon the waters, and in the last shadows were confided to the keeping of the waters — for such, recreation and sensuality must lie upon the river, and thus evolvc-u the first flower boat and grew and multiplied until in “stratas” it served for the rich upon the land aiid.for the poor, upon the tide. Possibly here was:fostered Chinese music and Chinese sing-ing,-and here-crude artists fashioned adornment. Here, too, we may ,yet note the poor exterior, and the riches within, as you may walk from the narrow, dirty lane in Canton through an ancient door and find within wealth of coloring and a treasure house unique in a score of ways. One might almost claim that Time encrusts exteriors in China, but men defy age by zealous care of - the interiors —otherwise there seems no solution to the contrast puzzle. How rich in romance are the flower-boat fleets we can only surmise. Was it not from a Canton flower craft that the late Empress Dowager is supposed by many chroniclers to have climbed to the throne of China, from slave to Empress ? And in the yesterday, as in the to-days, typhoons shattered and fires ravaged, and the great Pearl River swept , the debris with rough tenderness away. You could see them in rows on the Pearl River, squat, barges with square sides. All day motionless and dark against the moving- world, and at night colored by gay lanterns and"laden with song and music; and inside the flower girls waiting upon the guests.) Every analysis strikes the beginning of a root which is buried so deep that no Sven Hedin can uncover its resting. On this boat tho Viceroy entertained the King’s brother and the Princess Patricia, and on that gaiety covered'rags and temporary enjoyment made a break in continuing the monotony of river life. They are the floating restaurants, the musical halls, and much beside. Dingy on the outside and scum washed on the sides, they are amazing across the threshold, bright with lights, rich in gilt and carving and mirrors, soft with tapestry and velvet, stately with the beautiful blackwood chairs, and these last adorned with costly marble whose natural graining reproduces effects of mountain or river with bold impressionist likeness. •' :r

THE FLOWER GIRLS. The flower girls are in the main slaves —pretty purchased by a monopolist and used to attract to the flower craft he owns. They are bright ", and witty, trained carefully in amusing stories and in pleasant chatterings, and righly dressed. The Mandarins, or officials, exact heavy taxes from the girls in the form of licenses, and the existence of the'flower girl has often more.thorns than of roses in life, although the comparative splendour of their existence may be preferred to the ox-like labor of their fellows on shore, or to the heavy strenuous, oar-pulling monotony of their sisters afloat. Often a rich patron takes a fancy to some girl and buys- her—-perhaps for a 1000 dollars — and again some of the flower boats and the girls; thereon. are owned by officials or by wealthy-merchants, who give costly entertainments to their friends. The cable tells us that the fire fiend took his: sacrifice from many such. So narrow is the river, so immense the floating population, and so closely moored the. flower craft, that flames leap from wood to wood almost as ri horse runs. Before we despise, it would be well if we recognised that oiir own. sins are in some respects ,as grotesque, though more common and familiar, as those of the gaudy fleets: of the City of Rams, and if we could read the. history of some of these flower girls—the voluntary sacrifice to save the lives of loved ones, starving or feeble—-perchance, we might feel a real sorrow for the tragedy indescribable of the-great sewer miscalled “The- Pearl.” Looking back through a few months the writer recalls his visit to a flower boat in Inland China—-on the banks of Wuchow, at the head. of the pirate-haunted- West River, which separates from the Pearl River at Canton and slides away into ;faw Asia. Wuchow is like nothing so much as a great brown encrusted beetle, .with ’innumerable long legs, which is always ’ struggling to lift itself out of-damp mud arid never- succeeding. Its flower boats are replicas of their sisters of .Canton,, or rather of "that early original, square, drab, squashing lazily on the tide. When you have been sleeping with , a loaded revolver under your pillow, and dreaming dreams of -the strange true happenings of the West River, the idea of visiting a flower boat appeals,, especially as a flower may be a highly respectable place. to the foreigner. /We stepped on board one of-the square drabs and found a blaze of lamps and the usual’ rich, gilt work—a glorious, never-to-be-forgotten change from the pervading C"primitive' “power,” :of outside ■ Wuchow. , . h ' ' I CHINESE ORCHESTRA.

- There was a fat Chinaman in waiting, who' gravely received from the, captain three slips with Chinese hieroglyphics representing ■ the names of s three flower gi r ]s_for the flower girls of Wuchow have many engagements, per night, and must work hard to pay the very heavy tax squeezed bv the No. 1 Mandann, Taot"-!' or Prc-f/ft, as the case, may ; be. .1.. g' i; c..:r:o I.;, . .

ed in the curious, seemly costume .which appears appropriate and graceful: ©in-: broidered trousers and pretty over robo with neat Chinese shoes—only the very high class Chinese can afford the vlily feet-. The most picturesque portion of the dress was the triuiiiph of simplicity and almond oil, stroked back and rolled into a knot like a closed fist, and ornamented with, gold pins, perhaps with flowers. It was curious to watch the girls pull’out their little hand-mirrors and retoilet themselves, a touch of powder here, and a brilliant rouge on their lower lips. One of the visitors had fair hair, and h© blushed furiously at the' evident curiosity and amusement shown by the three singing girls. (j Presently the Chinese, orchestra; came in. Of all the weirdities, a Chin-' ese orchestra is supreme, supreme from the quaint old fiddle and the marvellous flute to the imitation kettle-drum, and the noise evoked would educate many musicians ? . Accompanied by the orchestra the girls sang solos. Chinese singing is invarably falsetto, high-pitch-ed, querulous, like a thing iiT pain—l frankly admit I .have no ear for music, -but it is still; true, that the'men vocalists have exactly the same high falsetto. If one wished for an appropriate term, “crooning” would probably apply. Imagine the high-pitched notes without expression, mingling with; the noise of the Orchestra, and confined in the thick heavy air of the flower boat, and you will understand that tho effect' was' almost a kind of hypnosis, a wondering langour, touched occasionally by the sob of tide on: wooden side. By way of variety we picked out the flute player and made him “soloisc.” It was something. quite ne‘w : for- him -to make melody on his own account, and his friends) .were convulsed. He ran iin gaily on a high £?te .and came down m a heap as his sense of him, or he started in on a'low not? and giggled Up the scale as never Chinese flute giggled before, and, finally, being fat,j he jay down his flute and grinned in cfeases—hereafter we preferred the combined effect. The Chinese feminine, however, has a temper, and not t© be preferred to a low-class flute coolie, ma( je the three singers fifigry; -rhey pulled out their little mirrors and dabbed rouge <on rouge, but* sing they would not, even for tlie captain Irish endearment of “Arrah! Allanah!” ' ‘ , , STORIES AND. SUPPER. . Fortunately at this stage wo wero found by the Imperial; Maritime Customs—the many nationalities of Sir Robert Hart’s creation. For an hour we yarned with these men—ranging from a Russian Pole to. a young Australian—and the stories which passed that night would make good reading and have the merit of truth; of a piracy, of a quack doctor,-of opium smuggling, of H who ended liquor with a gun-shot, of Chinese tortures, of flood and fire, and of other things. Lastly they drifted out into river boats and we turned back to ©upper. It was a -Chinese supper which cost many dollars—pigeons’ eggs, and soup of birds’ nests, chopped chicken, and minced 1 « pork, etc., colored sweetmeats, - Chinese tea —thoroughout it gurgled and wailed the orchestra, and occasionally an appeased damsel, having picked out Chinese delicacies with chopsticks, broke into the -falsetto. (Somewhere about 1 a.m. we scrambled into a small sampan and went into darkness in search of})our little, steamer. The memory - of } that supper is still vivid ; one remembers less gladly the life history of one of those three girls, but there, are things and things and other things which only happen in real life, and over sadness' it is well to. linger but a short while.